Police fear spread of Mexican drug cartel violence

By Dylan Welch

2 January 2011 — 3:00am

A MEXICAN criminal secretly sent to Australia to oversee the distribution of a huge cocaine importation by one of the world's most violent drug cartels had his cover blown and ended up murdered and mutilated.

The man fled from Sydney before Australian authorities smashed the operation of the Sinaloa cartel's drug operation in June last year, seizing 240 kilograms of cocaine and arresting four people.

However, the operative didn't live long. His chopped-up remains were found in the boot of a car in Mexico where the escalating drug wars have resulted in tens of thousands of violent deaths.

The gruesome murder has fuelled fears that the extreme violence used by the cartel may spread to Australia. The group's presence in Australia is increasing and local Mexican communities have quietly expressed concerns about the reach of the cartel, considered one of the biggest, best resourced and most ruthless in the world.

International organisations, such as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, have warned that the Mexican cartels are growing in size and strength. According to the UN body, the cartels are moving drugs to the US, Europe and Australia.

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The Mexicans have stepped up their interest in Australia as a drug market because of the significantly higher prices paid here for drugs. The street price for a gram of cocaine in Australia is double, and sometimes triple, that in other Western nations.

Australian authorities are so concerned about the influx of cocaine that the Australian Crime Commission in its 2009-10 annual report said cocaine importation was one of its priorities for the coming year.

The Australian Federal Police say there may be a trend away from drugs such as amphetamines to cocaine. In its latest annual report, the AFP stated that Australia received cocaine from various regions including South America and its drug seizures had quadrupled since the 1980s.

In 2009, two men were sentenced to a total of 32 years' jail for separate incidents involving importing almost 100 kilograms of cocaine from Mexico.

The Sinaloa cartel is understood to have imported up to half of the cocaine used on the east coast during the past two years.

The cartel is controlled by the billionaire drug lord Joaquin ''El Chapo'' Guzman. Its clashes with rival drug syndicates have sparked unprecedented bloodshed, murder and corruption in Mexico.

More than 28,000 people have died in Mexico since 2006 in the drug wars.